The Lumia 800 guide on What Not To Do

Most people like starting things off on a positive note, but I’m of the belief that you should get the horrid stuff out of the way first, and go uphill from there.

Since I got my Windows Phone 7 I have taken it upon myself to bring as many people as I can over to our side. You can think of me as one of the Microsoft WP7 Evangelists – but without the, you know, money. So I was rather pleased when I found out a family member was getting the Nokia Lumia 800. Nokia took their sweet time to finally get a phone to market so it could only be assumed that it would be a really rockin’ device, right?

After playing with the phone I immediately realized that was only half true. As a developer I pride myself in knowing that I have developed great stuff. It isn’t perfect (else I would be Popcap), but I avoid the obvious pitfalls as much as I can, and for the most part, do lots of QA before publishing. Sadly, it looks like Nokia (and Microsoft), who must have approved it all, didn’t focus too much on the software side. Here’s why…

App Highlights

This app is definitely one of the most decent preloaded apps. It has various sections (weber’s picks, starter kit, turn it up!!!, addictive, health+, and foodies) and within each there are about 10 apps listed.

I actually quite like the idea and premise behind it – people can turn their phone on for the first time and be given a whole bunch of suggestions based on what they’re looking for. This would definitely be useful for first-time Windows Phone users, and even more so for first-time smartphone users.

My only real complaint here is the performance – although maybe I’m biased because one of my apps is in the music section ;-). Until every item has loaded (which comprises an Icon, a name and publisher) it is totally unresponsive. On a fast connection, this might not be too noticeable, but for the other half of us, it just seems like they should have hired someone like Jeff Wilcox.

Contacts Transfer

Just about the quickest way to see that a developer has done a rush-job on an application is to look at the icon and splash screen. The icon is the first thing the user will see, so make it good – or at the very least, acceptable. Back when WP was first released I can recall a few applications in the Marketplace having the default icon (grey background with a white star in the center) – I don’t know if those slipped through or if the following certification requirement was only added after that:

“[4.5]Verify that the icons are representative of the application, and match the icons that are present on the device after the XAP package is installed.”

Either way, it has been a long time since I have seen this.

The very next thing the user sees is the splash screen. This is a static image that shows for a few seconds while the app loads and usually has the title, or sometimes an image that is very close to what the main menu looks like to give the user the impression that it loaded faster.

Unfortunately, there is no rule stating that you need to have one representative of your application or even different from the default. Most, if not all of you have seen the following splash screen:

That is the default one that Microsoft gives you – and tells you that the developer was too lazy to spend 10 minutes making a custom one. Hell, even removing it completely shows that you at least thought about it.

This brings me to the main problem with Contacts Transfer…they didn’t change the default splash screen!

Nokia Drive

Microsoft has clearly laid out guidelines to designing a “Metro” interface – and they have provided really great tools that make it pretty simple to make an application that fit’s nicely into the UI of the rest of the phone.

So what have Nokia done wrong? They didn’t change the design of Nokia Drive (from the N9) – they just ported it. OK, to be fair, they did add three little dots on the button at the lower right, plus they made the + and - buttons have square corners.

I can’t for the life of me understand why they could not replace that bottom bar with the “App Bar” from the Windows Phone SDK. Now I know that there is no requirement regarding this in the certification guide, but the whole app just feels like a fish out of water. They managed to pull off Nokia Maps really nicely, so why not this?

The following is a screenshot of Nokia Drive on the N9 – but virtually the only way you can tell is because I just told you…

For another great example of how important using the tools that the SDK provides, look no further than xMaps.

For some reason they decided that they would design their own app bar to try mimic the real one. I can’t figure out why they would do this, and besides looking shoddy, it’s just clunky to use.

UPDATE:
Various comments have pointed out that Nokia Drive is designed this way purely for ease-of-use on the go.
I had overlooked that as I had not used it "in the field", and in this light is perfectly valid reasoning.

Trip Advisor

This has to be the worst excuse for an application that I’ve seen. How Microsoft didn’t stop them from pre-loading this is beyond me.

There are typically a few ways to make an application for Windows Phone. First there is XNA and Silverlight (or a combination thereof). Let’s call ‘em the Light Side. Then there are sorry excuses for apps that are just HTML (or should I say HTML5, because that seems to be the buzzword that the general populous deems to be cool). These are most definitely the Dark Side.

Now before the HTML-devotees amongst you start looking up where I live, try understand that I am not saying HTML isn’t great. I’m just saying it’s a useless replacement for a native app (OK, XNA and SL aren’t exactly native, but you get my drift).

There are far too many reasons and not enough space here to explain why I believe the above statement – maybe that’s a topic for another day. For now, let’s just focus on the UI. Below is a screenshot of the app:

I know some of you will say “but it’s kind of metroey!” – because from what I have seen, a large proportion of people think that Metro == square edges. It doesn’t. Square things just happen to be very clean. In reality I’m giving them more credit [with the screenshot] than they deserve because that is actually a screenshot from Firefox on PC. On the actual app the boxes are rounded. You know, like the iPhone UI. And that right there is half the problem, because everyone who gets a Lumia 800 will be introduced to the lovely world of metro, and then as soon as they find this app they will get slammed back into the world of Apple. You may love or hate the iPhone UI, but regardless, that UI should stay on their devices, and our UI should stay on our devices.

The other half of the problem is that you can really feel that it isn’t a real app. It’s sluggish and unfriendly. At least with PhoneGap they attempt to throw in a few real Silverlight controls here and there, but this is just a Silverlight app with a WebBrowser control navigated to their website. You can try the app out yourself by opening your mobile browser (make sure that it’s set to mobile view in settings) and navigating to TripAdvisor.

In summary, I feel that Nokia has really rushed the software side of things – and should rather have left these apps off entirely. I know with a bunch of these things it sounds like I am nitpicking, but Nokia is Microsoft’s most important partner. People will judge WP7 based on their devices purely because it looks like Nokia may start dominating the market in terms of sheer numbers. On the plus side though, Nokia have provided us with a good What Not To Do guide – and I hope it helps some of you overlooking some obvious things while developing.

Reader comments

The Lumia 800 guide on What Not To Do

Amazing article, and welcome to WPCentral as an editor! I don't think you're nitpicking: I think every single app which isn't Metro from the icons to the transitions shouldn't be bundled or featured, at all.

Can you believe all Microsoft apps published in the Marketplace don't even have transitions at all? Might seem minor, but they look like they were developed by interns in a couple days. Just check Unit Converter, Weather and Translator, for some examples.

Congrats on becoming an editor, also your Ffffound app is great!
Obviously this is all to do with rushing products... Why, I don't know. Microsoft and Nokia should be hiring enough people and paying them well enough to get rid of these things. They take the user out of the experience slightly. Metro needs to be force-fed like on the Xbox.

the shit that i see in the marketplace also makes me ask the same question: why is Ms not hiring people to weed out the ridiculous.
people take a few text and list boxes add some info and call it an app.

Hi roguemat, thanks for your analysis.
We're always glad to get feedback, but I have few words regarding Nokia Drive.
When we started developing it, we took very conscious decisions about the UI.
One of the questions were whether going for a 100% metro UI app or rely on our Drive app expertise.
We selected the second option. No to rush software out but to address drivers' safety and comfort.
Our UI is specifically designed to be easy to use while driving, when you need a lot of info and you can't spend too much time interacting with the display.
Even on Symbian and MeeGo we had to break some OS UI rules to make sure drivers can actually easily use the app.
What do you think? Have you used Nokia Drive 'in the field'?
If you want to see more Metro UI love, do download Nokia Maps. Designed to explore the area around you instead of driving from A to B.

I don't like going against a fellow WPCentral contributor but I'm afraid I agree with Haikus here.

Nokia Drive is, and always was, very easy to use when you're driving which is the most important aspect of it's User Interface. We have to be careful when we discuss GUI as surely the key principle is that a GUI should make interaction with software a simple, intuitive and cleanly laid out experience which is appropriate for that software's purpose. When you're behind the wheel of a car the fact that something doesn't perfectly conform to Metro is not important, quick interaction to avoid crashing however is crucial.

Now that's not to say that drive couldn't be redesigned with a Metro style interface, but given that the existing one works so well why risk damaging the app with a brand new interface that's not been used out in the field?

Moving on though, I agree that TripAdvisor is a poor excuse for an app, but as far as I recall that's not a Nokia app, just something there if you want it to be removed when you realise it's pretty awful (like most carrier bloatware!)

As I read the article, I tried Contacts Transfer and in my Nokia Lumia 800 it has a "Nokia style" splash screen, and not the default one.
I don't have TripAdvisor (on my italian Lumia), but I agree with you about non-Metro apps or Metro-like-HTML5 apps.
About Nokia Drive, I used it quite frequently since I bought this smartphone, and I love it! It's easier and quicker to use than every other navigation app, the design is clean and very efficient.

Nokia Drive is just OK, NOT GREAT; It feels rush. It Does get you from point A to B, but it is hardly compareabe to what you get on Android from Google.
Nokia Drive (US):
1. Does not announce the street names for turn-by-turn; all it says is turn (left or right)
2. Does not does search
3. Isn't tied into the address book.
I hope they fix this stuff for the US launch.

Amazing article. I think you did mess up with the Drive critique though - much like with games, a full navigation solution doesn't need to be themed strictly by Metro as it is a siloed experience. Even so, Drive looks very attractive and generally follows Metro's guidelines (the strict app bar and such are not the definition of Metro).
Since you obviously do have an eye for design, I'd love to see you contribute during reviews. Not meaning to badmouth the other editors, but reviews such as the one of "Robots from Mars" make me weep. Ponder praises the graphics... has he taken a look at IB2?

Glad you liked it! I have updated the article to mention the Drive design, which yes, I was wrong about. I think I may have judged it "by it's cover" because I was comparing it too closely to Nokia Maps.

It also needs the ability to continue voice navigation when you leave the app or turn off the screen. Sometimes you need to do something else on your phone while navigating or turn off the screen and still have directions read to save battery life.

Thanks for updating the article and to all Nokia Drive supporters out there ;-)
Btw, updates are coming, with delicious new features!
I'll make sure to bring your feedback to the people behind App Highlights (it does work for me tho) and Contacts.
I can't say anything about TripAdvisor.

if you also know the guys that are responsible for the camera app, tell them they need to fix it.
It is missing a bunch of settings present on all other WP that I think is preventing the 800 from taking good pictures; now the pictures from the 800 are terrible compared to my 5MP Focus.

Is it me or are the topics missing from this post? By the way, I'm viewing this on the beta version 2 of the WP app. It's not reading right or something's missing. But it is nice to be able to directly comment from the app.

I was able to load the Drive.xap and I happen to love it--my Garmin never gets signal and having turn by turn at least helps out compared to Maps.
That being said, a touch-up to make it more Metro would have been nice.

Good article!
I'm an architect/designer and as a tech enthusiast all I care about is the UI aspect of it (I know nothing about programing) and I really connected with your thoughts.
The only thing I disagree is about the drive app as haikus gave a really good argument to why it was designed that way.
I hate when I see iPhoney apps in my Windows Phone.

I used to be a full time wp "evangelist", minus the bribe money from MS, just like you. I've pushed so much this unsellable platform that I looked ridiculous. I too have a direct interest with a few apps on the marketplace.

but I've stopped now, I've had enough. They screwed about anything they could, and they managed to do it late, even if they had a good thing on their hands to start with.

I applaud your unconventional approach to writing an article on wpcentral that doesn't seem like it's giving A+ for effort to nearly every aspect of WP7. I was hoping someone on a forum (besides engadget who likes to exert a mainstream opinion that WP7 has not and will not ever be taken seriously) would say something lukewarm about some of the problems MS and company has created for themselves. I think that you are mostly correct. The only nit-picking I thought was present was the lack of splash screen on the contacts transfer app. A good analogy to consider is the Samsung diagnosis app. These bare minimum apps which are disposable or OS-level are generally neither pretty and thoroughly designed nor metro-compliant. Other than that small detail, I agree with virtually every point you made. Someone needs to start a petition for these sort of things to be considered as well as a proposal for marketing this platform on apple's level. When that happens, we may be destined for great things.

I must agree with those who have commented on this article being very good. The feedback has been great! The constructive comments and insights are really refreshing. It almost seems like a place grown-ups can have a constructive conversation. Again, great article and even more so very thoughtful comments!

I really enjoyed reading this article. One of the main reasons for me holding out for a Nokia phone is that I want the software exclusives that they bring. That being said, I believe the title of this article is misleading.
First, the apps are on both the 800 and 710.
Second, these aren't things you shouldn't do on your L800. Instead, they are things that Nokia didn't do well enough on both the 800 and 710.
That is my only criticism. Thanks for the helpful article!

Good artical, though I wouldn't know the only hands on I've had was a 20 min with the 800 last week in London. hardly enough time to give everything a good go over. Nokia really needs to get thire devices state side.